IELTS Reading Sentence Completion: Strategy, Traps and Practice

Sentence completion questions give you sentences with a gap and ask you to complete each one with words taken from the passage. The instructions set a word limit, for example NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS or ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER.

The sentences paraphrase the passage, so the words around the gap are usually different from the text. Your job is to find the matching idea and copy the exact word or words that fit.

What it tests

• Locating specific information through paraphrase.
• Grammar awareness: the answer must make the completed sentence grammatically correct.
• Accuracy: correct spelling, respect for the word limit, and words copied exactly from the text.

Step-by-step strategy

1. Read the instructions and note the word limit. Write it down if it helps. This is the rule that loses the most marks.
2. Read each sentence and predict the type of word that goes in the gap: a noun, a plural noun, an adjective, a verb form, a number.
3. Underline the key words around the gap and think of synonyms for them.
4. Locate the area in the passage. The sentences follow passage order.
5. Find the words that complete the meaning. The passage will express the idea differently, so match meaning, not wording.
6. Copy the words exactly, with the same spelling and form as the passage.
7. Read the completed sentence. Check that it is grammatical, true to the passage and within the word limit.

Common traps

• Going over the word limit. Adding an article or adjective (the old harbour instead of harbour) can push you over the limit and lose the mark.
• The wrong word form. The meaning is right, but the word does not fit the grammar of the sentence: singular instead of plural, or a noun where an adjective is needed.
• The nearby distractor. Two nouns appear close together in the passage, and only one fits the meaning of the sentence.
• Changing the word. Writing a synonym or a different form of a word instead of the exact word from the passage.
• Spelling. A correctly located answer that is misspelled earns no mark. See IELTS answer rules.

Try it: mini-example

This passage is original practice material written for Bee English.

The salt road

For hundreds of years, salt was carried across the desert by camel caravans. Traders valued it so highly that, in some markets, it was exchanged for gold of equal weight. The journeys were dangerous, and caravans travelled at night to avoid the heat. Today most salt is moved by lorry, but a small number of caravans still make the trip, mainly to supply local communities and to attract tourists.

Complete the sentences. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

1. In the past, salt was transported across the desert by ……
2. In some markets, salt could be traded for an equal weight of ……
3. To avoid high temperatures, caravans made their journeys at ……
4. The few caravans that still operate do so mainly to serve local communities and to ……

Answers and explanations

1. camel caravans. Two words, copied exactly. Camels alone changes the word form and loses part of the answer.
2. gold. Gold of equal weight repeats words already in the sentence and goes over the limit.
3. night. The sentence says at ……, so at night would repeat at.
4. attract tourists. The sentence rewrites supply as serve, but the gap after to needs a verb phrase, so tourists alone does not fit. Writing attract visitors is the changing the word trap: visitors is a synonym, not a word from the passage.

Related guides

• IELTS Reading: complete guide
• Summary, note, table and flow-chart completion
• Answer rules: word limits, spelling and numbers
• Listening sentence completion

Sources

• IELTS, Academic Reading format and question types
• IELTS, General Training Reading format